Today MLB.com posted up an eight-minute interview with Yasiel Puig that was conducted by Manny Mota, which is significant because he sat down for an eight-minute interview without saying he wanted to kill the media.

Highlights:

1) He’s proudest that he helped the Dodgers make history and that the team is in first place.

2) Hardest part of MLB is the discipline required. Oh really? And he’s learning to concentrate for every plate appearance.

ESPN: From Jonah Keri‘s book on the Tampa Bay Rays, “The Extra 2%“, which I should probably get around to reading.

Jennings said he and the other scouts in attendance — all except Arango — remained concerned about the kid’s thick build. They also focused on the negatives rather than the positives as Arango and Jennings both fell into a bit of confirmation bias. Jennings didn’t like the player going down on one knee more than once to field grounders at short. He was also concerned about the player’s performance at catcher: messy footwork and iffy throwing mechanics, despite a few good throws. At bat, he worried about the player’s approach more than the results. “He’s sitting very deep on his back leg, uppercut swing, back shoulder dipping pretty good,” Jennings said.

It’s an excerpt that’s both funny and sad at the same time, but I do like the insight it gives into the decision making process.

Also, Fernando Arango is far more mature than me. I’d be sending a postcard to Chuck LaMar and Vince Naimoli every year with Albert Pujols and me smiling widely.

Sources close to Amaury Sanit tell Fernando Ballesteros at Puro Béisbol in Mexico that the Dodgers are interested in signing the 32-year-old Cuban reliever. Sanit logged just seven innings out of the Yankees’ pen last season before being released in June, but he has seen more action as the closer for the Culicán Tomateros in the Mexican League this winter, pitching to a 0.62 era in 36 appearances.

He has been rather unimpressive in the minors to this point and his stint in the majors was a disaster. Worse yet, he was suspended 50 games in 2010 for using performance enhancing drugs.

Nothing to get upset about, as it’ll be a minor league contract, but not noteworthy either.

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Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus relays on Twitter that the Dodgers have signed third baseman Josh Fields and pitcher Ryan Tucker.

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Beyond The Box Score: David Fung projects the Dodgers offense to be just as good in 2012 as it was in 2011…which is actually not good.

ESPN: Albert Pujols‘ wife explains the pain of having to question her faith over potentially making 25+ million dollars per year over 5 years instead of 10.

“When it all came down, I was mad. I was mad at God because I felt like all the signs that had been played out through the baseball field, our foundation, our restaurant, the Down Syndrome Center, my relationships, my home, my family close,” Deidre Pujols told the station. “I mean, we had no reason, not one reason, to want to leave. People were deceived by the numbers.”

…

“It’s just like God,” she said at the end of the interview, “to put us on a team called the Angels.”

Wow, I’m not religious but I feel offended for religious people.

Must be sickening to see a person use God to justify a choice made out of personal motivations…which were mainly based on money.

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Baseball Prospectus: Mike Fast with an outstanding read on the hit-and-run play. Way too long to recap here, so I hope you have a subscription.

While I don’t have the post anymore, I’m quite sure I didn’t like his signing at all. However, by mid-2010, it became quite apparent that he was going to be a valuable player for the Dodgers going forward. It wasn’t about grittiness or hustle or whatever storyline people want to feed you, it was about him taking walks, having positional versatility, and providing dependable defense over two years where the Dodgers didn’t have much of it at the 2B, 3B, and SS positions.